Ralph Yarl – update: Andrew Lester’s family ‘disgusted’ by shooting as stand your ground laws in spotlight

Stand Your Ground is a legal doctrine that allows people to use deadly force to defend themselves from apparent threats, without having any legal duty to try retreating first.

By contrast, some US states and English common law – from which much US law derives – do not permit the use of deadly force in self-defence if a jury finds that you could have retreated from the situation without putting yourself at serious risk.

In 2016, Missouri Republicans expanded its Stand Your Ground rules to cover not just a defendant’s home or car but any place where they have a legal right to be.

Specifically, the law says: “A person may, subject to the provisions of subsection 2, use physical force upon another person when and to the extent he or she reasonably believes such force to be necessary to defend himself or herself or a third person from what he or she reasonably believes to be the use or imminent use of unlawful force by such other person.”

It adds: “A person does not have a duty to retreat... from a dwelling, residence, or vehicle where the person is not unlawfully entering or unlawfully remaining.”

Since then, a study by a team of researchers from the University of Oxford, the University of Pennsylvania, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has found that states that implemented such laws saw their homicide rates increase by between 16 and 34 per cent.

Nevertheless, Stand Your Ground laws still require someone accused of murder or assault to persuade a court that they acted reasonably and proportionately.

“You can’t just shoot people who come to your door,” Missouri criminal defence lawyer Kevin Jamison told The Kansas City Star. St Louis law professor Anders Walker told The Washington Post that ringing a doorbell was not a justification for deadly force.

However, Republicans have tried to weaken this requirement, filing a bill last year that would have reversed the burden of proof in self-defence cases. Rather than a defendant having to prove that their belief was reasonable, the law would assume by default that it was, and prosecutors would have to prove that wrong.

Opponents have derisively referred to such bills as the “Make Murder Legal Act”, and the bill failed after opposition from prosecutors and law enforcement officials, including some conservatives.

“I think we now have a shoot first, ask later policy in this state, or at least that is what people have interpreted it to be,” said Maggie Nurrenbern, a Democratic state legislator.

“These shoot first laws, stand your ground laws – they’re harmful and they’re dangerous policies that give people a license to kill,” said Carthesa Dillard of Moms Demand Action, who has lost two of her family members to gun violence.

Under current laws, some experts do believe Mr Lester may have a workable case. Robert Spitzer, a New York political science professor who researches gun policy, said Missouri state law offers “wide latitude for people to use lethal force”.

St Louise defence lawyer Nina McDonnell agreed, saying that prosecutors have a strong case but Stand Your Ground laws are a “huge hurdle” to overcome.

“The defendant was in his house and has expressed that he was in fear,” she said.

Hollywood actors and celebrities including Gwyneth Paltrow and Kim Kardashian have spoken out to demand justice for a Black teenager who was shot in the head by a white homeowner in Kansas City.

Ralph Yarl, a 16-year-old high school junior, was shot twice last Thursday when he accidentally went to the wrong house to pick up his younger twin brothers.

The teenager spent days in hospital while the white homeowner – 84-year-old Andrew Lester – is still walking free.

My colleague Rachel Sharp reports:

Missouri has a “stand your ground” law allowing an individual “to use physical force upon another person when and to the extent he or she reasonably believes such force to be necessary to defend himself or herself or a third person from what he or she reasonably believes to be the use or imminent use of unlawful force by such other person”.

Under the law, the individual does not have a duty to retreat before using force on the other person.

Stand your ground and self-defence laws are controversial and have been used to acquit individuals in high-profile cases.

For example, Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty for killing two men and wounding another in a shooting at a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020.

Prior to this, George Zimmerman avoided conviction for shooting dead Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012.

Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves said at a press conference on Sunday that investigators were reviewing whether or not Andrew Lester was protected by the state’s laws. He was charged on Monday.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump has spoken out comparing the shootings of Ralph Yarl and Kaylin Gillis.

Mr Crump, who is representing Ralph and his family, said that race should not impact whether justice is served in those cases.

“Race does not change the need for justice in either of these cases,” he told The National Desk.

“If you were outraged over the shooting of Ralph Yarl, you should be outraged at the shooting death of Kaylin Gillis.”

He continued: “I would hope that the media will be covering both of these cases equally. I would hope that everybody respects the value of their lives equally. That is what humanity requires. It doesn’t matter if the color of your skin is Black or White.”

Comparisons have been drawn between the two cases.

Black teen Ralph was shot twice by a white homeowner in Kansas City when he went to the wrong address.

White 20-year-old Gillis meanwhile was shot dead by a white homeowner in New York state when she and her friends drove into the wrong driveway.

James Lynch, 42, says he was getting ready for bed when he heard shouting outside his home and saw the Black teenager knocking at a neighbour’s door begging for help.

The father of three says that he ran outside, jumped a fence and sprinted across the street to help Yarl, and held the youngster’s hand until paramedics arrived on the scene.

“I thought he was dead,” Mr Lynch told NBC News. “No one deserves to lay there like that. He hasn’t even begun to live his life yet. He didn’t deserve to get shot.”

Last week, Ralph Yarl found himself lying in a hospital bed with gunshot wounds to his left forehead and right arm.

Harrowing photos showed the Black teenager with tubes coming out of him and his head and arm wrapped up in bandages.

He is alive but his family says he has a long road to recovery ahead – a recovery that threatens to derail his dreams of going off to college to pursue a career in engineering.

So how did he end up here?

He went to pick up his younger brothers from a friend’s house, accidentally rang the doorbell at the wrong address and was shot twice by the 84-year-old white homeowner, Andrew Lester.

It’s a horror case that has led protesters to take to the streets, civil rights attorneys to rally behind the 16-year-old’s family, and Hollywood celebrities use their platform to amplify the case – all demanding justice for the Black teenager and for the white homeowner to face charges.

Here’s what you need to know about the case:

The family of suspected shooter Andrew Lester has said they are “disgusted” by the 84-year-old’s shooting of Black teenager Ralph Yarl.

Mr Lester’s grandson Klint Ludwig spoke to CNN on Thursday about his reaction when he learned his grandfather was responsible for the shooting that has shocked the nation and renewed debates around racial justice, gun rights and stand your ground laws.

“I was disgusted. I thought it was terrible,” said Mr Ludwig.

“Myself and my family stand with Ralph Yarl and seeking justice. This is a horrible tragedy, it never should have happened.”

Read the full story here:

Black teenager Ralph Yarl was shot by a white homeowner after he accidentally rang the doorbell at the wrong address while going to collect his brothers.

The 16-year-old accidental visit to Andrew Lester’s home in the Northland suburb of Kansas City quickly turned violent and the high school student was left hospitalised with serious injuries.

Instead of going to a home in the 1100 block of Northeast 115th Terrace in Kansas City, Missouri, to pick up his brothers, he mistakenly went to Northeast 115th Street, police said.

Now prosecutors have brought charges against the homeowner.

Here is everything we know about the suspect:

One of the grandsons of the man accused of shooting Black teenager Ralph Yarl said his grandfather believed in a “crazy” conspiracy theory involving US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci.

Klint Ludwig, one of Mr Lester’s grandsons, said he was estranged from his grandfather as he had embraced right-wing conspiracy theories.

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Andrew Lester’s ex-wife has broken her silence to reveal why she isn’t surprised that the white homeowner shot Black teenager Ralph Yarl last week.

Mary Clayton, who was married to Mr Lester when she was young and had three children with him, told The New York Times she “was always scared of” her former husband.

During their 14-year marriage, she said he had anger issues and would smash up items around their home.

She called the police at least once over his rages but she said that nothing was done about it and she was told Mr Lester could do what he wanted in his home.

“I was always scared of him,” she said, adding of the shooting: “It doesn’t surprise me, what happened.”

Read the full story: